Edith+Clark


 * SUMMARY: Edith Clark, age 29, died June 24, 1971 from a legal abortion performed in the Sparkhill, New York office of Dr. Robert Livingston.**

"Annie" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "[|Blackmun Wall]" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. I have since found news coverage that provides her name: Edith Clark.

Edith traveled from her home in Newark, New Jersey to the Sparkhill, New York office of Dr. Robert Livingston to avail herself of the new law, for a first-trimester abortion on June 24, 1971.

Shortly after she was given an injection of Innovar for [|anesthesia], Edith went into cardiac arrest, and attempts to revive her failed. She left behind three children.

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the // Roe vs. Wade // Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. Edith was the first woman to die in New York's Rockland County from a newly legalized abortion. The second, 18-year-old @Pamela Modugno, died in May of 1972.

In addition to Edith and Pamela these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre- // Roe // New York:


 * Pearl Schwier, July, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
 * Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
 * "Amanda" Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
 * Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
 * "Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
 * "Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
 * "Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
 * "Anita" Roe, May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion
 * Margaret Smith, June 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
 * "Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
 * "April" Roe, August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died
 * "Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
 * "Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
 * Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
 * "Beth" Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
 * "Roseann" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
 * "Connie" Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
 * "Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
 * "Roxanne" Roe, May, 1972, given overdose of abortion sedatives

We can see that starting in the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. And as you can see from the graph below, the fall in abortion deaths was in place long before legalization. Legalization did nothing to change the number of deaths each year; the trend had been in place for decades. Learn more [|here].

Sources:
 * "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 - June 30, 1972, Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, //Obstetrics and Gynecology,// 43:3, March 1974, 323.
 * "18-year-old student dies during abortion," //White Plains Journal-News//, May 18, 1972



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